When You Become Thirty

Ed: “Where has the time gone? Where have all the spring times and beautiful 1440 minutes gone that Jong-hyun has reminded me of while gazing away at the cherry blossoms”

Kim Yeon-soo, a novelist, gave a public reading of his book “World’s end, girlfriend” at the 2nd Library on October 30th. The newly published novel “World’s end, girlfriend” is his 4th novel. There are 9 different short stories in the book. Each of the stories presents unique plot styles, but all of the stories deal equally with the theme of love, time and our lives.

This book had distinctive features such as sensational and vivid description. It draws readers to scenic pictures in each plot. One of my favorite stories is “Enough to remember.” Unlike the other 8 stories, I could find out the theme easily. The story was about a pretty and smart girl who is not attracted to the hero ‘Hyun’ who was there for her all the time. They went on a family trip together. During the trip, she was wandering around and looking for the ‘deviation’ which was untouchable to her. The style of the sentence was so descriptive that I pictured the beautiful scenery myself.

In the public reading, he read aloud one of his stories, “When you become thirty.” It is a story about a woman who accidentally chanced on her ex-boyfriend on her 30th birthday bringing back memories of her past. After the reading, question and answer session followed. Kim Sung-hyun, a major in Korean language & literature, said “Out of 9 stories, I liked the World’s end, girlfriend the most. There were refined sentences which were lovely enough to make me imagine the scene of the story. Also, Kim is my favorite writer. I had questions I really wanted to ask about my dream career. I finally got the answer. It will be really helpful with my future career.”

The writer read aloud what he actually wrote; he knew where to pause, how the character was described in the novel, and how his voice should sound at the right moment matching the content. It was a precious time itself that the writer actually read his book. As I indulged myself during the reading, I could picture it through my mind and become the main character of the story, remembering my old days. I was sharing my times with the main character; recollection of fragmented memories. I also took my memories out and yearned for something that already has past. This was all about the reading Kim’s novel. It might seem boring to read but it wasn’t; our deepest feeling inside our hearts wants to look back on forgotten times.